Petition title: Reconsider the closure of the
Welsh Independent Living Grant and support disabled people to live
independently

Text of petition:

Why we oppose this decision:

The Welsh Government said the decision was taken on
stakeholder advice. The majority of representatives on the
stakeholder group were third sector or citizens. But they didn't
want WILG scrapped and the key point is that our advice was not
accepted.​

It should also be remembered that closure of WILG
is not inevitable as is proved through the formation and success of
the Scottish Independent Living Fund; which also works to support
the Northern Ireland ILF.

Furthermore, the hugely popular Labour Party
Manifesto outlined plans to set up a national care system to exist
independently of local authorities.

This is exactly the time that the Labour Party
should be united on such issues against the Tories. We must
question why Welsh Labour are not playing their part in the
changing political landscape?

Indeed, eventually it should be our aim to set up
an Independent Living Fund for Wales so that no disabled person
should have to suffer the same uncertainty and isolation as WILG
recipients are now experiencing. We can only begin to believe that
true social justice and equality for all is possible if Welsh
Labour revisit their WILG decision.

Welsh Labour will no doubt argue that we should
give the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act a chance to
succeed. However, this idealistic act needs hefty investment
and resources to ensure it is a success – with no sign of any
of the necessary improvements to our infrastructure that the
success of the Act depends on. This may indeed be the time for a
revolutionary change in the way social care is delivered, but such
a transformation could take a decade or more and WILG recipients do
not deserve to be treated like guinea pigs when their high care and
support needs require long-term stability and
structure.​

Funding for the
Welsh Independent Living Grant, which replaced the Independent
living Fund, is due to be transferred to local authorities from
April 2018 when it will be used to provide social care services as
part of mainstream local authority provision. Current
recipients of the Welsh Independent Living Grant will then receive
their support from services provided or arranged by local
authorities or via direct payments administered by local
authorities.

Background

The
Independent Living Fund (ILF) was a UK Government funded
discretionary scheme which helped people who had both day and night
care needs and who were getting the higher rate care component
of Disability Living Allowance. The ILF was aimed at
disabled people with relatively high support needs as an
alternative to residential care and it was provided in addition to
local authority social care services.

The
ILF was set up in 1988 as a UK-wide scheme with offices in
Nottingham. It operated as an independent discretionary trust
funded by the Department for Work and Pensions and was managed by a
board of trustees. Recipients used the money to purchase
support services, particularly personal assistants, in a similar
way to Direct Payments.

In December 2010, the Minister for Disabled People of
the UK Government announced that the ILF was to be closed to new
applications. In December 2012, following a consultation on
the future of the Fund, it was announced that the Fund would be
closed permanently from April 2015.

However, in November 2013 the Court of Appeal upheld
alegal challengeagainst the Government which it found had failed to
meet its Equality Duty in the consultation on the future of the ILF
and in its decision to close it. The Department for Work and
Pensions subsequently undertook a new equality impact assessment
and in March 2014 the Minister for Disabled People announced that
the ILF would close on 30 June 2015. From 1 July 2015, the funding
and responsibility of ILF care and support needs transferred to
local authorities in England and the devolved administrations in
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Since 1 July 2015 local authorities inWaleshave administered a Welsh Independent Living Grant
(WILG) and payments have continued to be made to former ILF
recipients. From April 2018 the Welsh Government is proposing
to transfer the WILG funding to local authorities to be used to
provide
social care servicesto former recipients
as part of mainstream local authority provision.

InEnglandformer ILF recipients now
have needs assessments and care arrangements made through their
local authority.

The Minister for Social Services and Public Health
has provided a response to the petition.

She states that the stakeholder advisory group, which
the Minister is consulting on decisions around the former ILF, did
not oppose the decision to transfer funding from the Welsh
Independent Living Grant to local authority social
services.

She also states that providing all social care
services through local authorities will be fairer, particularly
given that the ILF had been closed to new entrants since 2010, and
help to ensure that all disabled people receive social care
services in the same way.

The Minister sets out the alternative options which
were considered, including having ILF payments to Welsh recipients
administered by the Scottish ILF. She states that this option
would not have been available for some time and would have been too
costly.